The problem with gel pens is that they seem to be unable to flow the ink fast enough to keep up with my hand as it writes. So I get what appears to be half-written letters. I am also left handed, and writing causes me to smear the side of my hand right across my newly written words, giving me a nice little temporary tattoo of what looks like shoddy watercolor, in addition to smearing my writing. And if I want a pretty color ink? - forget it. Smear city. I detest gel for these reasons. I NEVER get gel for these reasons. Then one of my classmates bought these, I tried them and loved them. But I wasn't about to buy them because I knew they were brand new and would very soon be ineffective as ink flow began diminishing. Then I noticed the classmate (who is left handed) didn't have smudges after writing in multiple colors during a 3 hour lecture. That got my attention. Then another classmate bought some, but she bought the thinner point tip. I wrote with them and loved them, though I preferred my pen tip to write a bit thicker. I still wasn't convinced. I'm a bit obsessed with office supplies as many nursing students are. I'd had my pen loving heart broken a time or two by pens that gave a bunch of good promises, only to tap out when times got tough (i.e. finals). So I waited, and during lecture my friend was kind enough to share whatever I wanted with me, so I got to practice. Finally, I bit the bullet and bought them. I am SO happy I did. They are everything I could want in a gel pen, in a ball-point, in ANY freaking pen, these are hands down the best. I can write in every color I can think of and NEVER have a smear or a smudge or a skip in ink or anything. The flow is perfect. I haven't written on a card or any type of glossy paper with them yet, and I'd imagine it would increase the drying time slightly, but it would still be tons better than what I've dealt with in the past. They dry instantly when I'm writing on my notebook paper, so all I'd have to do on glossy paper is slow down just a tad, but not to a ridiculous level like I'd done before. (Write a word with my hand tilted awkwardly and blow on it as I wrote, pause as I blew on it more, then move on to the next word and repeat the process) I like them so much that I interrupted my study session to come to Amazon and review them. Thank you Paper Mate, you've really been the mate I needed in pens, and us south paws are often forgotten about when it comes to office supplies, but you got us covered. My only complaint isn't really the fault of the pen, its a fault of the paper, the darker colors show through my paper somewhat, but not enough that they could be called bleeding. I can see the "shadow" of them through my paper as I write on one side that has been written on the other side in dark ink. But that only happens with a few of the colors, because they're dark enough. That is most definitely NOT bleeding though, it's just thin old cheap note book paper quality. I can still use the other side, so it isn't like it's impeded me in any way. I'm actually appreciative, I love having this many color options. They get a strong 5 stars from me!
Bad Wolf
Angelsmom